Zonk, parlez vous francais?

[nullity]

I don't -NEED- a french Air Zonk Box & manual... I don't even -NEED- scans of them (although, said scans will earn you pleasures unimaginable for what could only be quantified as "long time").  What I do -NEED- is confirmation that Air Zonk does indeed have a Canuckistan French box/manual variant.

Even answering this question factually for me will lead to HTT sending you some impure vibes, regardless of whether or not you have scans for me.

[Lochlan]

I can't 100% confirm it's existence as I have not personally seen it.

However I am sure that it exists.  TTI French Canadian releases have a UPC sticker on the box (over the old one) and a folded B&W glossy paper manual.

[Black Tiger]

My memory is that Air Zonk came with French instructions.

A better question would be, which Canadian releases didn't come with French instructions.

[HailingTheThings]

The fate of the turboverse bangs in the balance. This knowledge could make the difference.

fixed.

*vibes*

[esteban]

Right on. Thanks for the confirmation.

That is a good question, black tiger. Are there any NA releases that did not hit Canuckistan?

The fate of the turboverse hangs in the balance. This knowledge could make the difference.

IIRC, black_tigre has stated that Working Designs titles were not officially distributed in Canada.

Third-party.

Not sure about first-party titles, though.

[reno5]

I confirm that Working Designs where not officially distributed here.

As for the box they are identical but in the later release we got a folded glossy black and white french booklet.

As of now all video games released in Québec must have English and French descriptions on the back of the box + french instruction, notice etc. I even have a XBOX 360 copy of Mass effect entirely in french (no english anywhere on the box and in game) that i tried to pass in a gamestop in Virginia and was refused has the barcode didn't exist in their system

[Necromancer]

Some games had different boxes and others just had a upc sticker; some games had cheap folded frenchy instructions and others had fully translated manuals.  I've not made a concerted effort to figure it out, but I'd bet they started out doing the full treatment and only cheaped out on the latter releases (like with leaving out cases).

[Lochlan]

I'm not disputing anyone's statements/claims... but i am beginning to think the project of identifying which games have box differences, full manuals vs shiny inserts, and which came with escargot gift certificates is going to be a chore. Haha...

There are three kinds of box/manual configurations for French language games.

1) Old style boxes (four screenshot black boxes).  They original English text is under the top two screenshots and then there is a French translation under the bottom two.  There is an Ontario address for NEC Canada and usually some fonts are different, there seem to always be slight variations.  A French manual is included OUTSIDE the jewel case (same quality as original manual).  All this is true for the two white box CD games as well.

2) NEC released "colored" boxes.  The game genre on the back is in French and the description has smaller text with both English/French descriptions.  I think they have the Ontario address also but generally less variance than with the old boxes.  Also include a French manual outside the jewel case (same quality as original manual).  All this is true for the boxed CD games

3) TTI releases.  UPC sticker and a glossy b&w paper manual.  You can really see the cost-cutting measures with this one

What I'm not sure about is the CD games without boxes.  I know at least Beyond Shadowgate had a Canadian release with the UPC sticker but I've never seen a French manual for the unboxed CD titles.

[Black Tiger]

Right on. Thanks for the confirmation.

That is a good question, black tiger. Are there any NA releases that did not hit Canuckistan?

The fate of the turboverse hangs in the balance. This knowledge could make the difference.

No third party published titles were released in Canada. So it's pretty much WD games, Sidearms, Tricky Kick and Sinistron. Can't remember at thr moment if there were any other non-NEC/TTi releases. Who published Klax? I found it locally at a flea market, so it's likely not an import.

[neutopia6]

I've got a French Bonk 3, the instructions are black and white and French, still has shrink wrap with a sticker on it that says ''directives en francais a l'interieur''
Don't know if this helps or not, but figured I'd try lol.

[reno5]

No third party published titles were released in Canada. So it's pretty much WD games, Sidearms, Tricky Kick and Sinistron. Can't remember at thr moment if there were any other non-NEC/TTi releases. Who published Klax? I found it locally at a flea market, so it's likely not an import.

I can confirm Sidearms was available at my local RadioShack up north as i bought it brand new at the time before selling all my TG16 stuff to get a Genesis (dont judge me lol) I bought back my sold system few years after from the guy that bought it from me

[_joshuaTurbo]

nope,

[madboom0522]

And god pipes in!

[Lochlan]

I can confirm Sidearms was available at my local RadioShack up north

But was it available as a French version with a French manual?  (Or was it a gray market item?)  Do you have any pics?

[Black Tiger]

I can confirm Sidearms was available at my local RadioShack up north

But was it available as a French version with a French manual?  (Or was it a gray market item?)  Do you have any pics?

Radio Shack in Canada was a different company than the USA chain and up here, many didn't follow the typical store design/catalog and brought in all kinds of games from different sources. I had to get my Mother to pick up the Turbo Sidearms for me during a trip to Washington state. I already had Sidearms Special, but wanted to see what the chip version was like, wanted a game I couldn't get otherwise and it was fun to play on my Express.

I'm pretty sure that NEC/TTi confirmed to me during phone conversions and letter replies that the third party games weren't available in Canada. I know WD definitely confirmed it and told me that they were working on setting up Canadian distribution connections (their Sega-CD games were available in Canada, but the early ones could have been imports). At least WD did direct-mail sales. Otherwise I don't know when I would have been able to experience Exile and CF2.

During a trip to Seattle, shortly after SFII' was released and during the week that EGM first announced that SFIIT was in the works for SFC, I found Exile and Vasteel at a game store, but only ad enough money to buy one. I made the right choice and got Vasteel, which received way more play time than Exile, which I eventually ordered direct.